A spirit of defiance
by Henry Uchiha
Summary: At the turn of the 19th century, they came for us. I was ten at the time. I wish I could escape the horrors that I lived but I never will. This is how I survived. This is how I fought. This is how I survived.


Harry Cullotty

Chapter 1

The night was still except for the distant forming of clouds and the odd flash of lightning, but it was too far away to be any threat to our cottage.

This was it, the eve of war; the night that a silent storm was thrust upon our doorsteps. Yet we were ignorant, ignorant as much as an ant is until a boot is brought down on him and his home.

Had we of known that we had been watched, maybe we might have been able to provide some defence… who am I jesting. There was no way to prevent the attack.

That night was just as any other would be.

I trudged up the road towards the observatory where professor Ogilvy was gazing to the stars. I had only been ten at the time and yet, even I felt a chill in my bones on that evening. The stars were burning in the night sky. "Bleeding show off, he makes his money by being an owl and staring through a great metal tube." I muttered and felt a hand slam down on my shoulder.

"Did your mother teach you to talk like that, son?"

I slowly turned my head as I felt my heart jump into my throat. There stood a proud man wearing a bowler hat. I couldn't make much of his features out in this late of the night but I knew who he was. "Professor Ogilvy!" I yelped. _Just great,_ I thought,_ I'm goanna get the bloody cane for this._

"You didn't answer my question." He said without tone.

"My mother and father will barely speak to me, let alone talk around me." I frowned as I admitted to my own small world problems. If only I had realised at the time how important and insignificant I truly was.

Ogilvy regarded me for a few seconds before taking a deep sigh and clapping his hand on my back again, but it was more a gesture of comfort. "Come on. I'll let you take a look through the telescope. You're in for a special treat tonight lad." I was on no point to argue, I was lucky I hadn't got a walloping around the ear for my cheek.

But events began to take hold faster than I could imagine.

As we walked into the grand laboratory where Ogilvy kept his massive study I was roughly shoved aside. I bet the man didn't even see me! His cheeks were red as though he had run all the way here. The two began to chatter and I fell back from the conversation. It was only when Ogilvy rushed to the window that I began to acknowledge them again.

"The chances-" he began to whisper to himself and the man as both began to find a slight fear increasing. The fear was as evident as the green blur that was burning bright in the night sky. "What a funny star." I muttered quietly as I took my place at the window sill.

"This happens to be the year it passes by, it cannot be a coincidence Ogilvy!" the man almost seemed breathless with indignation.

"The chances of anything coming from mars are a million to one!" Ogilvy sighed as he stood in front of his telescope and began gazing through.

Then he became very still.

He slowly raised his head and looked outside as though to check the lens of the enormous telescope wasn't dirty. "The chances…. Are a million to one!" he growled to himself.

"Yet you see it as clearly as I did with my own two eyes!"

"It can't be!" Ogilvy frowned and stormed out the observatory with the man following in his steps like a lost puppy. Leaving me, all alone… with a massive telescope pointed at an object which had struck fear into two full grown men… I grinned and ran over to it. "How am I supposed to resist?" I began to lean forward. "Plus he did say that I could take a look."

I flicked back a loose lock of hair that had fallen over my eyes. I really did need a haircut. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to what I was really looking at. "Astounding." My voice dripped with every ounce of sarcasm I possessed. I looked at the sight of a giant red circle. _Was this supposed to be what had scared them both?_ I laughed to myself until I saw it.

The telescope moved just as another burst of green exploded from the circles surface. _What?_ It refocused on the green star I had seen from the window. Except… this wasn't a star. Ogilvy had spent hours on perfectly fine summer days, explaining to me all about stars. The trail on this thing was very wrong.

It was beautiful to look at, as is a rose.

But just like a rose this had thorns.

"BOY!" I fell out the seat as Ogilvy stormed over to me with a look of fury on his face… no, there was something behind the anger, something he couldn't admit, something hidden in the dark of his pupils; it was fear.

He raised his hand and for a second I thought he would strike me but his hands just came to a comforting hold on my shoulders. "What did you see?"

"Everything, I saw the flash on the circle."

"Circle?"

"The big red circle."

"That wasn't a circle lad. That was a planet Mars."

"And what of the star that leapt from it?"

"I don't know. I just don't know." He sighed but then his gaze became hardened. "Do not mention anything you witnessed on this night."

"But professor-"

"Not. A. Word."

"Yes sir." I frowned and looked away while he chuckled.

"Obedience does not come naturally to you does it child?"

"No sir."

"Good." He smiled, "Something tells me, you're going to need that fighting spirit." He gazed out the window. "A million to one." He muttered, "A million to one."


End file.
